Memblaze PBlaze7 7A46 6.4TB Enterprise SSD Review - 3.3 million IOPS of Power and Efficiency

TweakTown's Rating: 97%

The Bottom Line

The Memblaze PBlaze7 7A46 6.4TB enterprise SSD is the "King of Writes" and delivers 3.3 million IOPS. You can't do much better than that.

Pros

• Up to 3.3 million RR IOPS
• Up to 1 million RW IOPS
• 11.3K MB/s Sequential Writes
• Power efficient

Cons

• None

Should you buy it?

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Introduction and Drive Details

The China-based storage giant Memblaze is back again with a new variant for its PBlaze7 portfolio of PCIe Gen5 SSDs. The new variant is known as the PBlaze7 7A40 Series. What makes this new variant unique is it is the first enterprise SSD we've encountered to come arrayed with YMTC flash. The 7A46 3-DWPD SSD we are reviewing today is controlled by an unnamed 16-channel controller and is arrayed with YMTC 232L 2400MT TLC flash - a unique hardware configuration that is all Chinese developed and made.

While we've never encountered this hardware configuration before in the enterprise space, we have encountered 232L YMTC flash numerous times in the consumer space, finding it to deliver exceptional throughput and random performance on par with, or better than much of what the leading NAND fabs are churning out across the globe.

Back in August of last year, we reviewed the Memblaze P7940 Series. At that time, the Marvell SC5 controlled B58R arrayed Gen5 P7946 proved to be the most performant of its kind we had ever encountered. Memblaze has stated to us that its 7940 series is intended for the US market and that its new 7A40 series is intended for Asian markets, with the 7A40 series being the more powerful of the two.

Memblaze sees its new PBlaze7 7A40 Series as ideally suited for accelerating applications such as AI, databases, cloud computing, and virtualization. Additionally, the power-efficient P7A46 variant we have in hand is the first of its kind to surpass 1 million 4K random write IOPS. Impressive.

The PBlaze7 7A40 Series offers remarkable power efficiency with a staggering 110% improvement in 4K random read performance per watt and a 73% increase in 4K random write performance per watt compared to its predecessor products. It consumes 13W for sequential reads and 18W for sequential writes, with an optimized thermal design to minimize thermal impact in dense deployment scenarios.

With its unique hardware configuration, the PBlaze7 7A40 Series can deliver latencies as low as 5 microseconds when programming 4K random data and latencies as low as 55 microseconds when serving data to the host. Additionally, with enhanced flow control and intelligent sequential flow prefetch technology, its sequential read latency can also be as low as 6 microseconds, further boosting performance under low queue depth workloads and providing stronger support for various latency-sensitive business applications.

On the enterprise features front, the PBlaze7 7A40 Series supports NVMe 2.0 and NVMe-MI 1.2b protocols, providing essential enterprise-grade features such as full data path protection, power-loss data protection, firmware upgrade without reset, secure erase, and more.

Okay, now that we are familiar with what the PBlaze7 7A40 Series has to offer, let's see exactly what the 6.4TB P7A46 variant can do for you by the numbers.

Specs/Comparison Products

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Memblaze PBlaze7 P7A46 6.4TB PCIe Gen5 SSD

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The Memblaze PBlaze7 P7A40 series is available in 2.5-inch U.2 form factor. These SSDs are compatible with major operating systems such as RHEL, SLES, CentOS, Ubuntu, Windows Server, and VMware ESXi. The drive we have in hand is the 6.4TB P7946 3-DWPD variant. It is 16-channel controlled and arrayed with YMTC 232L 2400MT TLC flash.

Test System Specs & Enterprise Testing Methodology

Enterprise SSD Test System

Prior to the AI revolution, datacenter SSDs' normal operating range would typically never exceed QD32. With AI data pipeline storage being directed by GPU, high queue depth performance has become paramount. Queue depths in the thousands are now commonplace, which is why we've changed our test platform, methodology, and operating system. Our new charted upper queue depth range has been revised from QD256 to QD4096 for random data and up to QD1024 for sequential testing.

Testing Methodology

TweakTown strictly adheres to industry-accepted Enterprise Solid State Storage testing procedures. Each test we perform repeats the same sequence of the following steps:

1. Secure Erase SSD
2. Write the entire capacity of SSD 2x (2 loops) with 128KB sequential write data, seamlessly transition to the next step (sequential testing skips step 3)
3. Precondition SSD by filling the drive twice with 4K or 8K random writes
4. Run test-specific workload with a 30-second ramp up for 5 minutes at each measured Queue Depth, and record average result

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Benchmarks - Sequential

128K Sequential Write/Read

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We precondition the drive using 100 percent sequential 128K writes at QD256 using 1-thread for 2-drive fills, receiving performance data every second. We plot this data to observe the test subject's descent into steady-state and to verify steady-state is in effect as we seamlessly transition into testing at queue depth. A steady-state is achieved after 1-drive fill. The average steady-state 128K sequential write performance at QD256 is approximately 11,300 MB/s. Exactly as specified.

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The P7A46 6.4TB test subject cranks out a whopping 11,300 MB/s. The drive is well ahead of the competition, delivering even more than our previous champion, the Memblaze P7946. The drive reaches peak performance here at a QD2 and holds absolutely steady across all remaining measured queue depths. Impressive.

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The P7A46 6.4TB impresses at QD1-QD4 and then again from QD64 on up. However, we would like to see better performance at QD8-QD32.

Benchmarks - Random

4K Random Write/Read

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We precondition the drive using 100 percent random 4K writes at QD256 for 2-drive fills, receiving performance data every second. We plot this data to observe the test subject's descent into steady-state and to verify steady-state is in effect as we seamlessly transition into testing at queue depth. A steady-state is achieved after 1-drive fill. The average steady-state write performance at QD256 is approximately 1000K IOPS.

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As we saw with sequential writes, the P7A46 has no equal in its class when programming data. Random or sequential, it is the current undisputed champion. 1000K IOPS at QD8. Amazing.

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And there you have it, the P7A46 can indeed deliver up to 3.3 million IOPS. Its performance curve is second only to the mighty PS1030. This is performance that matters.

4K 7030

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Again, our test subject delivers a performance curve that is second only to that of Solidigm's PS1030. We will also note that it delivers much more than its predecessor, the P7946. Is YMTC flash good? Very good.

4K 5050

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Introducing more writes into the mix narrows the gap between our test subject and the PS1030. Here again, the P7A46 is delivering the second-best overall performance curve we've encountered to date.

8K Random Write/Read

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We precondition the drive using 100 percent random 8K writes at QD256 for 2-drive fills, receiving performance data every second. We plot this data to observe the test subject's descent into steady-state and to verify steady-state is in effect as we seamlessly transition into testing at queue depth. A steady-state is achieved after 1-drive fill. The average steady-state write performance at QD256 is approximately 500K IOPS.

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We expect 8K random to track pretty much the same as 4K random here, just at a lower IOPS rate because it's moving twice the amount of data. The overall performance here is exceptional, coming in better than factory spec and better than 50% of its 4K peak random write performance. Again, when pure writes are the order of the day, the P7A46 has no equal.

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This is where P7940 series has the edge over the P7A40 Series or any other SSD we've ever tested for that matter. We consider the performance curve of our test subject here to be the fourth best we've encountered to date.

8K 7030

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8K 7030 is representative of a common database workload. Here we find our test subject able to overcome the P7940 by delivering the second-best performance curve here that we've encountered to date. Impressive.

8K 5050

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Just as we noted at 4K, introducing more writes into the mix narrows the gap between our test subject and the PS1030. Here again, the P7A46 is delivering the second-best overall performance curve we've encountered to date.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to programming speed (writing data), the PBlaze7 7A46 has no equal in its class as far as we know. It is indeed the King of writes. In terms of IOPS, the newest Memblaze offering can indeed deliver as specified - up to 3.3 million IOPS giving it the most top end random read performance we've encountered to date. This bodes well for YMTC flash as well as Memblaze. Chinese made datacenter SSDs are looking very good.

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It can write without equal and can also attain the highest steady-state random read IOPS we've ever charted. Impressive. Editor's Choice.